One of the ways that HITECH Answers is different from other media sites is the sense of community. The thought leaders in our community are good about sharing their thoughts on the issues of today. We publish at least eleven guest posts a week now, on our three sites. In case you missed some, here are the top ten read and shared guest posts in the month of May. You can also read previous month’s Top Ten Lists. Thank you for contributing and reading.
Attaining a 360 Degree View of the Patient
By Jack Plotkin, CTO, Virtual Health
Twitter: @VirtualHealth_
Over the last 10 years, the healthcare industry has experienced a major shift in both the prevalence and importance of information technology. Electronic health records have progressed from bleeding edge, to basic requirement, to competitive differentiator. Claims and authorizations have made the leap from the fax machine to the cloud. Patient engagement has transitioned from printed questionnaires to connected devices and wearables. Care team communication has evolved from paper memoranda to secure mobile communication. Continue reading on HITECHAnswers.net…
Best Practices for Incident Response Plans
By Sara Goldstein, Esq., VP & General Counsel for MRO
Twitter: @MROCorp
Data breaches cost companies an average of $221 per compromised record. Heavily-regulated industries, like healthcare, tend to have per capita data breach costs substantially higher than the overall mean. In fact, according to an American National Standards Institute (ANSI) survey of institutions who experienced a reported breach, healthcare breaches can cost $8,000 to $300,000, in addition to any U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights (OCR) penalty or settlement. Continue reading on HITECHAnswers.net…
Healthcare Industry Cyber Security Woes Will Worsen Before Getting Better
By Joseph Opacki, VP of Threat Research at PhishLabs, former FBI Technical Director of Advanced Digital Forensics
Twitter: @PhishLabs
A bold statement, I know. After all, how could things get worse? Over the past two years healthcare has been targeted and breached more than any other industry. Fines for negligence have become commonplace, and reached new highs in 2016. And yet I’m confident in my prediction. Here’s why. Continue reading on HITECHAnswers.net…
The Cure for Dysfunctional CDS
By Sean Benson, VP & General Manager for POC Advisor, Wolters Kluwer Clinical Software Solutions
Twitter: @POC_Advisor
Effectively delivering clinical decision support (CDS) interventions to the point of care has proven to be a significant challenge for many hospitals and health systems. These projects often fail to drive meaningful improvements and, in some cases, make matters worse. One study found that clinicians ignore EHR safety notifications between 49 percent and 96 percent of the time, primarily due to alert fatigue. Another found a strong association between low perceived value of alerts, clinician dissatisfaction and, subsequently, clinician burnout and turnover. Continue reading on HITECHAnswers.net…
How Should Interoperability Actually Work?
By William A. Hyman
Professor Emeritus, Biomedical Engineering
Texas A&M University, w-hyman@tamu.edu
The generic idea of medical record interoperability is that diverse record systems from diverse providers and diverse vendors should be able to send/share/exchange/display patient information in order to enable better individual healthcare, and perhaps support a variety of public health interests. As ONC puts it, “EHR Interoperability enables better workflows and reduced ambiguity, and allows data transfer among EHR systems and health care stakeholders. Ultimately, an interoperable environment improves the delivery of health care by making the right data available at the right time to the right people.” Continue reading on HIEAnswers.net…
6 Ways Modern Compliance Officers Can Shift Their Organization’s Focus
By Grant Elliott, CEO, Ostendio
Twitter: @ostendio
In nearly every conversation I have with a compliance officer, what I hear is the need for more time to do all that the job entails. So, if you’re feeling more reactive and tactical than strategic these days, you’re not alone. Today’s compliance officers face an ever-mounting challenge to keep up with both the complexities and the “administrivia” required for realizing ongoing privacy and information security compliance. With cyber threats at the forefront of every risk management discussion, you’re likely being called upon to help the CTO with cybersecurity planning and incident mitigation, too. Continue reading on HITECHAnswers.net…
Is Patient Generated Health Data The Future Of Healthcare?
By Debi Primeau, President, Primeau Consulting Group
Twitter: @PrimeauCG
According to the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC), Patient Generated Health Data (PGHD) are “health-related data created, recorded, or gathered by or from patients (or family members or other caregivers) to help address a health concern. PGHD include, but are not limited to health history, treatment history, biometric data, symptoms, and lifestyle choices.” Continue reading on HIEAnswers.net…
Understanding the Relationship Between EHR and RCM
By David Kushan, Founder, Healthcare IS
Twitter: @HealthcareIS
Amongst the many benefits of implementing an electronic health records (EHR) platform, two are fundamental: increasing the overall quality of patient care and improving business efficiency and revenue. While it can often be difficult to visualize the connection between these two sides of hospital operations, these two outcomes are linked together. Transitioning to a new EHR platform depends the cooperation of the entire hospital staff, and it’s not something that can be done overnight. Continue reading on HITECHAnswers.net…
Value-Based Care Success for Pharma: Requires Machine Learning for Patient Adherence
By Sarianne Gruber
Twitter: @subtleimpact
How pharma rethinks its marketing will be on par with how healthcare will embrace value-based care. Succeeding in value-based care may indeed be the impetus for pharma to embrace new “technologies” to help patients better adhere to medication regimens. Speaker Kevin Troyanas, SVP Marketing Analytics from Saatchi & Saatchi Wellness, at the IIEX Health Conference gave an excellent overview of why machine learning and predictive analytics has become the technology of choice for healthcare marketers to tackle patient adherence. Continue reading on RCMAnswers.net…
2 Things HIM Leaders Wish Their Revenue Cycle Peers Knew
By Andrea Romero, RHIA, Senior Vice President, HIM Operations, himagine solutions
Twitter: @himagineInc
Working in a variety of provider settings, ranging from a large, multi-facility health system to a county-owned, short-term acute hospital, has given me a unique point of view on the engagement between HIM and the revenue cycle function. Even in cases where HIM reported directly to the vice president of revenue cycle and ultimately the chief financial officer, I typically felt that awareness of the challenges the HIM Director faced on a day-to-day basis was lacking. Continue reading on RCMAnswers.net…
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